


Family Ties

by Jayne L (JayneL)



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-06-17
Updated: 2003-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:05:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayneL/pseuds/Jayne%20L
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's possible that Adella has a lot to answer for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

> Written during the Panic Room storyline of 2003.

Ric lies slack under the thin white sheet of the hospital bed. His eyes stare blankly past her, focused on nothing, and if it weren't for the quiet rasp of his breathing, the slight rise and fall of his chest, she could easily believe he was dead.

She tries to believe it, every time she visits. Somehow, though, it's more comforting to know he's stayed alive for one more day, and one more after that, and one more after that. More...satisfying.

Carly knows she can be vindictive, and spiteful, and a bitch. For a long time, she counted those characteristics as crucial to her survival; nothing motivates a person quite as well as the craving for revenge, and for a long time, Carly was highly motivated indeed. Time has passed, though, and while she's not quite that hungry anymore, she still appreciates her ability to slip into the old, comfortable skin when necessary.

She wears it with pride every time she steps through the door to his room. She knows her eyes glint a little sharper every time she sees his restraints.

He doesn't need them. Not according to Doctor Lewis, anyway, who sometimes shows up while she's there and spends the time he's supposed to be examining his patient bringing her up to date on what little changes there have been since their last chat. According to him--and the terse notes he scrawls on the chart that Carly hasn't told him she can understand--Ric is so far gone, he'll likely never interact meaningfully with the real world again.

* * *

Ric is suffering from a psychotic break, prompted by untreated schizoaffective disorder and resulting in a catatonic physical state. It should have been diagnosed and treated long before it reached this level of severity. It could have been managed without all the collateral damage, but apparently the people in this town have too much faith in their own ability to cope--and it's at this point Cameron always cuts himself off and furrows his brow and breathes a long, heavy sigh. In the beginning, Carly tried making snide remarks about that, about how it reflected the amount of faith the people in this town must have in the quality of psychiatric help they'd get if they went looking, but Cameron just made snide remarks right back. She realized after a while that, after Luke and Laura and Sonny and Alexis and Zander and Elizabeth--God, poor Elizabeth--Cameron Lewis knows exactly the quality of psychiatric help that is available to the citizens of Port Charles, and--like her--doesn't much care anymore. It was a deeply satisfying realization, and since then she and Cameron get along just fine.

It helps that Cameron pays attention to her suggestions on courses of medication, suggestions based on how Sonny hadn't reacted well to Clozaril, then Risperdal. Drug resistance can be problematic when the patient is as far gone as Ric, and Cameron often expresses professional appreciation for the helpful guide Sonny's experience has been when it comes to treating his brother.

Carly's more than willing to help. All she asks in return is that Ric be kept safely tied to a bed in the criminal ward at General Hospital. In Ric's state, it hardly seems necessary, but Cameron agrees nonetheless.

* * *

Ric is psychotic. Ric is restrained. Ric is apparently catatonic, and Carly would be spitting mad about that if she didn't _know_, regardless of what Cameron says, that Ric can still hear, see, and understand everything going on around him. That's why she visits. As she used to tell Sonny--when Sonny was in a condition to hear and understand--she knows how effective a timely stay within the walls of a mental ward can be, especially when things outside those walls aren't conforming to the current revenge scheme. She knows that, with sufficient motivation, it's easy to stop talking or talk gibberish or zone out in just the right way to make even the most suspicious enemies believe, and she knows that Ric had more than sufficient motivation the day of his "psychotic break". He might be crazy--and after everything he's done to her and her family, Carly is more than willing to believe that--but he's also smart, and careful, and calculating. And Carly believes with all her heart that, blank stare aside, he knows exactly what's going on.

So she makes Cameron keep the restraints on, and visits, and enjoys seeing Ric trapped and at her mercy. She's all that's left of anything that could be considered his family, after all, so the restraints won't come off unless she authorizes it. When she sits beside his bed and holds his hand, limp under the minimally-padded belt, she remembers how the only thing that kept her from regretting her manipulated stay in Ferncliffe was the freedom to move around her room when she was alone; she enjoys the idea of taking that freedom from Ric, just as she knows he enjoyed the idea of taking so much from her and Sonny.

Sometimes she brings the baby to remind him just how utterly he failed when it came to making that idea a reality. Almost a year old, little Adella squirms in her lap until Carly pushes away from the bed, giving Ric a clear view as she sets Sonny's daughter on the floor, offering her hands so Della can grab hold and balance as she takes shuffling, determined steps around her mother's chair. Even when Carly holds Della up to give Uncle Ric a kiss, his vacant expression never changes.

* * *

Ric knows Carly will never stop visiting, and revels in that certainty every time she walks through the door with that look in her eyes.

Ric watches Carly play with the baby, and smiles.

Ric pulls the gun from under his covers, aims, and pulls the trigger, mesmerized by the spray of red as Carly falls to the floor.

Ric strikes out, too sudden for Carly to dodge, the back of his hand cracking across her cheek as she cries out.

Ric holds Adella in his lap, one hand cupped tightly over her little nose and mouth until she stops squirming.

Ric sits alone in his bare ward room, staring at nothing. Occasionally, his hands twitch.

End.


End file.
